88
Ra
Radium
镭
226.0254
The Ghost of Pierre Curie Reminisces
皮埃尔·居里亡魂追忆往事
She had a radiant smile. It lit up the night. Her name was Marie Sklodowska when I met her. I was working on crystallography, piezoelectricity, and the effects of temperature on magnetism at the time. But the real magnetism was all hers.
她的微笑灿烂得朝周围放射，照亮了夜晚。我遇见她时，她的名字叫玛丽·斯克沃多夫斯卡。当时我正从事结晶学、压电效应，以及温度对磁性吸引力的影响。但是真正的吸引力全都在她身上。
We went dancing. So taken with her was I that I stuttered and stammered and spoke like a fool. It made me flush red with anger at myself. But then she touched my shoulder with her gloved hand and I looked into those amazing eyes of hers and was trapped as firmly as a single chromium atom in a ruby lattice.
我们去跳舞了。我太喜欢她了，结果说起话来结结巴巴、吭吭哧哧，就像个傻瓜。我脸肯定红了，还对生起了自己的气。但是后来她用戴着手套的手碰了碰我的肩膀，我看着她那双令人惊叹的眼睛，感觉自己就像一个进入红宝石晶体的铬原一个，深深得陷进去了。
We wed. To the world, she became Madame Curie. But to me, she was ever and always Marie. At the Ecole de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle, she measured the strength of uranium compounds, and made the surprising discovery that pitchblende emitted four times more radiation than could be explained by its uranium content. Seeing the implications immediately, I joined her in her research. Together we discovered polonium and radium. We isolated a gram of radium salts, and determined the atomic weights and properties of both elements.
我们结婚了。对世界来说，她成为居里夫人。但是对我来说，她永远是玛丽。在物理化工学院期间，她测量了铀的化合物的强度，并得出令神奇发现：沥青铀矿的辐射比其铀含量所能推算的多四倍。我立刻看到了这项发现的意义，加入到了她的研究之中。我们一起发现了钋和镭。我们分离出一克镭盐，并测定了两种元素的原子量和化学性质。
In 1903, we shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. Oh, the passion we shared that night in our enormous bed on the top floor of the Grand Hotel in Stockholm! I would not have traded that evening for a thousand Nobel Prizes. She fell asleep in my arms, but I stayed up for hours, marveling at the richness of our life together.
1903年，我们共享了诺贝尔物理学奖。噢，那天晚上，我们在斯德哥尔摩大酒店顶层的大床上也共享了激情！哪怕给我一千个诺贝尔奖我也不会用那晚来换。她在我的怀里睡着了，但是我却失眠了好几个小时，为我们丰富的一生而惊叹。
Two years later, I was killed in a wagon accident. Marie grieved, and soldiered on. She became the first female lecturer at the Sorbonne. In 1911 she received a second Nobel, this time for chemistry. She put all her energies into the development of the uses of X rays in medicine. Now she is old and dying and I, a spirit no more tangible than the cosmic radiation that sleets unhindered through human flesh, hover at her bedside and whisper endearments that she cannot yet hear.
两年后，我在一次货车事故中丧生。玛丽悲痛之下，继续前进，她成为索邦大学的第一位女性讲师。1911年，她第二次获得诺贝尔奖，这次是化学奖。她全力推广X射线在医学上使用。现在，她已经垂暮将逝，而我，一种比穿透肉体畅通无阻的宇宙辐射还要无形的灵魂，正徘徊在她的床边，低声说着她还无法听到的话语。
Oh, Marie, do you remember my arms about you? Do you remember my hands, my mouth? Do you remember our research, our long and patient hours at the electrometer? Do you remember that night when you touched my shoulder with your white-gloved hand and we danced? Around and around we whirled, like the twin electrons in helium’s solitary and self-sufficient shell.
哦，玛丽，你还记得我抱过你的手臂吗？你还记得我的手、我的嘴吗？您还记得我们的研究，我们在静电计边长久耐心的工作吗？你还记得你用戴着白手套的手触摸我的肩膀，然后我们去跳舞的那天晚上吗？我们在转啊转，就像氦的两个电子一样，孤独而满足。